This is a lesson about being different and thinking differently. It focuses on the work of Temple Grandin, an animal behavior scientist who has autism, a brain condition of unknown cause that people are born with, and that makes them behave differently than other people.

Gene Screen App

The Gene Screen app from the DNA Learning Center offers you a look at how recessive genetic traits and diseases are inherited and how certain diseases are more prevalent in different populations. You can go through the four sections in Learn About Genetics to get an introduction to genetics or you can head on into the Inheritance Calculators, where you can work out patterns of recessive inheritance. Included among these calculators is a section on Jewish Genetic Diseases, which lets you compare the prevalence of genetic disease in Jewish communities compared with the general population. Along with the prevalence, you can get background information on each of the diseases.

Finally, the interactive ancestry map provides information on some genetic diseases that are more common in certain areas of the world.

Going Further

The primers, inheritance calculators, and map of genetic diseases will be useful to you and your students. You can use this app in your classroom to reinforce concepts like dominance and recessiveness and to model probability through the use of Punnett squares. There is also great background information detailing the prevalence, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatments for several common recessive genetic diseases.

The Learn About Genetics section could be used to help introduce students to the study of genetics while the Inheritance Calculators could be used by students to help them review the use of Punnett squares in determining inheritence.